News in Brief: A State Capitals Roundup

Judge Says Hiring Policy Violates Law

A New York state judge has ordered a Long Island school district to
stop requiring its new teachers to give up their eligibility for tenure
as a condition of being hired. The unorthodox practice violates state
law, he ruled.

The ruling this month by lower-court Justice John S. Lockman
invalidated a policy instituted last year by the 10,300-student Middle
Country district about 60 miles east of New York City.

The district policy required new staff members to agree to work
under renewable contracts and forgo tenure. Another judge overturned a
similar policy in the nearby East Islip school system last spring in a
decision that is under appeal.

Under state law, teachers get tenure when they are hired for a
fourth year in the same district. Justice Lockman said the Middle
Country school board's policy "exhibits a lack of regard for the system
of laws by which we are governed, and creates a new creature of logic,
waiver by fiat."

The district's superintendent, Cecil A. Ramsey, said last week the
school board had not yet decided whether to appeal.

Mass. Schools To Share $15 Million

School districts throughout Massachusetts are receiving a total of
$15 million in one-time grants aimed at filling financial
"potholes."

The money comes from the state's 3-year-old foundation-reserve
program, through which the legislature sets aside funds to meet urgent
school budget needs. State Commissioner of Education Robert V.
Antonucci announced last week that the grants for fiscal 1998 were
awarded to 96 districts, out of more than 150 applications.

The money supplements the $2.3 billion the state doles out to
districts according to a school funding formula.

The so-called pothole program this year gave preference to districts
that have seen substantial enrollment increases, receive little state
aid through the funding formula, and have relatively high local tax
burdens.

Fla. School Construction Plan Released

It's official: Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles has called a special
legislative session on school construction for next month.

The Democratic governor announced last week that he will call both
houses of the legislature to the state capital in Tallahassee from Nov.
3 through 7 to address "critical problems in overcrowding, major
renovations and repair, and fiscal capacity."

Overcrowding in Florida schools has been in the spotlight since last
year. Some officials estimate that the state has up to an $11.1 billion
school construction backlog. The crowding stems from the more than
600,000 students who have poured into the state's schools over the past
10 years.

Last week, the governor called for a $1.8 billion bond
issue--supported by lottery profits--for school construction and
renovation; authority for school boards to levy an additional
half-cent, local-option tax; and $50 million for school facilities in
rural counties.

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